Israeli Liberal Party Rejects Herut Plan for Parliamentary Merger

The Liberal party was on record today as almost totally opposed to the proposal of the rightwing Herut party calling for a united Parliamentary faction as a first step toward unification.

The stand was taken in a stormy six-hour session of Liberal party leaders who rejected the proposal by 42 to eight votes. More than 30 of the leaders took part in the debate and almost all of them opposed the proposal. Izhar Harari, a Liberal Knesset deputy, asserted that the Herut party had lost any ideological backbone, and was trying to strengthen itself through the unification plan.